Many industrial and commercial processes are dependent upon the proper configuration of physical items involved in such processes. For example, an automated warehouse fulfillment system requires that each item of stock in a warehouse is located at its proper position. In the case of consumer product manufacturers, product sales and consumer satisfaction depend on the existence and proper location of products on retail store shelves.
Currently, product representatives visit retail stores to survey product displays, correct or update product positions, and either re-stock products with items that are available in store stock rooms or place orders for future delivery. In cases where a product line and corresponding in-store display include hundreds of items located in long store aisles, the tasks of correctly assessing the locations of products, moving products, and re-stocking products are extremely time-consuming as well as ad-hoc. Even ignoring inevitable human inefficiencies and errors, conventional systems fail to provide an efficient system to determine and guide correction of errors in the physical configuration of items, such as items on a store shelf.